Reading Daughters Of Darkness
by Alyona77
Summary: Daybreakers read the second Night World book.
1. Chapter 1

Ash was getting a little annoyed. Poppy told everyone to meet in the living room, in Thierry's mansion. The only think that was keeping him there was Mary- Lynette. He sit there and listen to her talking with

Maggie. Her and Maggie became really good friends. That didn't really surprise him, they had a lot in common. So did Hannah. The tree of them were insuperable, that made Ash happy. He glad Mare like it here.

"Ok is everyone here?" Poppy asked.

"Yes what is this about?" Quinn asked. Him and Rashel were in the middle of training.

"This," Poppy said. And pointed on the book.

"A book?" Ash asked.

"Just listen," Poppy told him.

**The Night World ... love was never**

**so scary. **Poppy read.

Everyone in the room stiffened.

**The Night World isn't a place. It's all around us. It's a secret society of**

**vampires, werewolves, witches, and other creatures of darkness that live among**

**us. They're beautiful and deadly and irresistible to humans. Your high school**

**teacher could be one, and so could your boyfriend.**

"Yeah we kind of know that," Jez said.

**The Night World laws say it's okay to hunt humans. It's okay to toy with**

**their hearts, it's even okay to kill them. There are only two things you can't**

**do with them.**

"Thats just nice," said Maggie.

"Agree," Mare said. She was thinking about Ash, but he changed. Yet there was still vampires like that, that thought just made her shiver.

Ash felt that, and pulled her closer.

**1) Never let them find out the Night World exists.**

**2) Never fall in love with one of them.**

"Well we all broke them," Thierry said.

**These are stories about what happens when the rules get broken.**

"So there stories about us?" Morgead asked.

"This is one is about Ash and Mary-Lunette," Poppy said.

"Oh great," Mare said. Ash groaned at that. He didn't really feel like sharing there story with everyone .

**CHAPTER 1 **Poppy started.

**Rowan, Kestrel, and Jade," Mary-Lynnette said as she and Mark passed the old**

**Victorian farmhouse.**

**" Huh?"**

**" Rowan. And Kestrel. And Jade. The names of the girls who're moving in."**

**Mary-Lynnette tilted her head toward the farmhouse-her hands were full of lawn**

**chair. "They're Mrs. Burdock's nieces. Don't you remember I told you they were**

**coming to live with her?"**

"He has short memory," Mare said.

"All guys do," Thea teased.

"Hey," Eric protested.

Everyone just laughed at his expression.

**"Vaguely," Mark said, readjusting the weight of the telescope he was carrying**

**as they trudged up the manzanita-covered hill. He spoke shortly, which**

**Mary-Lynnette knew meant he was feeling shy.**

"He is," Mare noted.

"I didn't really thought he was," Ash said. He still remember him and Jade together.

"Well that before Jade," Mare laughed.

Everyone else just look at them confused.

**"They're pretty names," she said. "And they must be sweet girls, because Mrs.**

**Burdock said so."**

**" Mrs. Burdock is crazy."**

"I like your brother," Quinn laughed.

All the guys agreed with him.

**" She's just eccentric. And yesterday she told me her nieces are all beautiful.**

**I mean, I'm sure she's prejudiced and everything, but she was pretty definite.**

**Each one of them gorgeous, each one a completely different type."**

**" So they should be going to California," Mark said in an almost-inaudible**

**mutter. "They should be posing for Vogue. Where do you want this thing?" he**

**added as they reached the top of the hill.**

"Star gazing again?" David teased.

Mare just shot him a glare.

**" Right here." Mary-Lynnette put the lawn chair down. She scraped some dirt**

**away with her foot so the telescope would sit evenly. Then she said casually,**

**"You know, I thought maybe we could go over there tomorrow and introduce**

**ourselves-sort of welcome them, you know..."**

**"Will you cut it out?" Mark said tersely. "I can organize my own life. If I**

**want to meet a girl, I'll meet a girl. I don't need help."**

"Sure he doesn't," Ash teased.

"Did you introduce them?" Hannah asked.

"We meet them at the same time." Mare said.

**" Okay, okay. You don't need help. Be careful with that focuser tube-"**

**"And besides, what are we going to say?" Mark said, on a roll now. "'Welcome to**

**Briar Creek, where nothing ever happens. Where there are more coyotes than**

**people. Where if you really want some excitement you can ride into town and**

**watch the Saturday night mouse racing at the Gold Creek Bar...'"**

"Is it really that boring?" Rashel wondered.

"You have no idea," Ash said.

Mare glared at him. "Sorry," he whispered.

"Whipped," Quinn said.

**"Okay. Okay." Mary-Lynnette sighed. She^ - looked at her younger brother, who**

**just at the moment was illuminated by the last rays of sunset. To see him now,**

**you'd think he'd never been sick a day in his life. His hair was as dark and**

**shiny as Mary Lynnette's, his eyes were as blue and clear and snap ping. He had**

**the same healthy tan as she did; the same glow of color in his cheeks.**

**But when he'd been a baby, he'd been thin and scrawny and every breath had been**

**a challenge. His asthma had been so bad he'd spent most of his second year in an**

**oxygen tent, fighting to stay alive. Mary-Lynnette, a year and a half older, had**

**won dered every day if her baby brother would ever come home.**

"Thats terrible," Maggie said.

"It was," Mare agreed.

**It had changed him, being alone in that tent where even their mother couldn't**

**touch him. When he came out he was shy and clingy-holding on to their mother's**

**arm all the time. And for years he hadn't been able to go out for sports like**

**the other kids. That was all a long time ago-Mark was going to be a junior in**

**high school this year-but he was still shy. And when he got defensive, he bit**

**people's heads off.**

"Don't I know that," Ash said. He remembered the day when Mark walked in on him and Mare.

Mare just laughed at his exasperation.

**Mary-Lynnette wished one of the new girls would be right for him, draw him out**

**a bit, give him confidence. Maybe she could arrange it somehow...**

"Didn't really had to," Ash said.

**" What are you thinking about?" Mark asked suspiciously.**

**Mary-Lynnette realized he was staring at her.**

**"About how the seeing's going to be really good tonight," she said blandly.**

**"August's the best month for starwatching; the air's so warm and still. Hey,**

**there's the first star-you can make a wish."**

**She pointed to a bright point of light above the southern horizon. It worked;**

**Mark was distracted and looked, too.**

**Mary-Lynnette stared at the back of his dark head. If it would do any good, I'd**

**wish for romance for you, she thought. I'd wish it for myself, too-but what**

**would be the point? There's nobody around here to be romantic with.**

"Well I'm here now," said Ash.

Everyone burst out laughing.

**None of the guys at school-except maybe Jeremy Lovett-understood why she was**

**interested in astronomy, or what she felt about the stars. Most of the time**

**Mary-Lynnette didn't care-but occasionally she felt a vague ache in her chest. A**

**longing to ... share. If she had wished, it would have been for that, for**

**someone to share the night with.**

At the mention of Jeremy Ash growled. Mare felt a little uncomfortable, she still felt bad about that.

**Oh, well. It didn't help to dwell on it. And besides, although she didn't want**

**to tell Mark, what they were wishing on was the planet Jupiter, and not a star**

**at all.**

**Mark shook his head as he tramped down the path that wound through buckbrush**

**and poison hemlock. He should have apologized to Mary-Lynnette before leaving-he**

**didn't like being nasty to her. In fact, she was the one person he usually tried**

**to be decent to.**

**But why was she always trying to fix him? To the point of wishing on stars. And**

**Mark hadn't really made a wish, anyway. He'd thought, if I was making a wish,**

**which I'm not because it's hokey and stupid, it would be for some excitement**

**around here.**

**Something wild, mark thought-and felt an inner shiver as he hiked downhill in**

**the gathering darkness.**

**Jade stared at the steady, brilliant point of light above the southern horizon.**

**It was a planet, she knew. For the last two nights she'd seen it moving across**

**the sky, accompanied by tiny pinpricks of light that must be its moons. Where**

**she came from, nobody was in the habit of wishing on stars, but this planet**

**seemed like a friend-a traveler, just like her. As Jade watched it tonight, she**

**felt a sort of concentration of hope rise inside her. Almost a wish.**

"And here is Jade," Ash said.

"Whats with the tone?" Mare asked. "I thought she was your favorite sister."

"She is, she is just a little cray." Ash answered.

"Don't we all know that," James agreed.

"No way James just agreed with Ash," Morgead said with a hand over his heart.

"We have to write this down," Quinn agreed.

**Jade had to admit that they weren't off to a very promising start. The night**

**air was too quiet; there wasn't the faintest sound of a car coming. She was**

**tired and worried and beginning to be very, very hungry.**

**Jade turned to look at her sisters.**

**"Well, where is she?"**

**"I don't know," Rowan said in her most doggedly gentle voice. "Be patient."**

"I like Rowan," Mare said.

**"Well, maybe we should scan for her.**

**"No," Rowan said. "Absolutely not. Remember what we decided."**

**"She's probably forgotten we were coming," Kestrel said. "I told you she was**

**getting senile."**

**"Don't say things like that. It's not polite," Rowan said, still gentle, but**

**through her teeth.**

**Rowan was always gentle when she could manage it. She was nineteen, tall, slim,**

**and stately. She had cinnamon-brown eyes and warm brown hair that cascaded down**

**her back in waves.**

"Cant argue with that," Ash stated.

**Kestrel was seventeen and had hair the color of old gold sweeping back from her**

**face like a bird's wings. Her eyes were amber and hawklike, and she was never**

**gentle.**

**Jade was the youngest, just turned sixteen, and she didn't look like either of**

**her sisters. She had white-blond hair that she used as a veil to hide be hind,**

**and green eyes. People said she looked serene, but she almost never felt serene.**

**Usually she was either madly excited or madly anxious and confused.**

"Yeah tell me about it," Ash made a face at that.

"Oh she can't be that bad," Thea said.

Ash just shot her a glare.

**Right now it was anxious. She was worried about her battered, half-century-old**

**Morocco leather suitcase. She couldn't hear a thing from inside it.**

"Should she?" Delos asked.

"She had a cat inside," Mare explained.

"Oh," everyone else understood.

**00 "Hey, why don't you two go down the road a little way and see if she's**

**coming?"**

**Her sisters looked back at her. There were few things that Rowan and Kestrel**

**agreed on, but Jade was one of them. She could see that they were about to team**

**up against her.**

**"Now what?" Kestrel said, her teeth showing just briefly.**

**And Rowan said, "You're up to something. What are you up to, Jade?"**

**Jade smoothed her thoughts and her face out and just looked at them artlessly.**

**She hoped.**

**They stared back for a few minutes, then looked at each other, giving up.**

**"We're going to have to walk, you know," Kestrel said to Rowan.**

**"There are worse things than walking," Rowan said. She pushed a stray wisp of**

**chestnut-colored hair off her forehead and looked around the bus station which**

**consisted of a three-sided, glass-walled cubicle, and the splintering wooden**

**bench. "I wish there was a telephone."**

"Has she ever even used one?" Quinn asked.

"Yes, she is not from the same place as Delos," Ash teased. He never got along with Delos.

To his surprise Delos didn't say anything.

**"Well, there isn't. And it's twenty miles to Briar Creek," Kestrel said, golden**

**eyes glinting with a kind of grim enjoyment. "We should probably leave our bags**

**here."**

**Alarm tingled through Jade. "No, no. I've got all my-all my clothes in there.**

**Come on, twenty miles isn't so far." With one hand she picked up her cat**

**carrier-it was homemade, just boards and wires and with the other she picked up**

**the suitcase. She got quite a distance down the road before she heard the crunch**

**of gravel behind her. They were following: Rowan sighing patiently, Kestrel**

**chuckling softly, her hair shining like old gold in the starlight.**

"Who would follow them?" James wondered.

"Maybe Jeremy?" Ash thought.

"No, you will see." Mare remembered

**The one-lane road was dark and deserted. But not entirely silent there were**

**dozens of tiny night sounds, all adding up to one intricate, harmonizing night**

**stillness. It would have been pleasant, except that Jade's suitcase seemed to**

**get heavier with every step, and she was hungrier than she had ever been before.**

**She knew better than to mention it to Rowan, but it made her feel confused and**

**weak.**

**Just when she was beginning to think she would have to put the suitcase down**

**and rest, she heard a new sound.**

**It was a car, coming from behind them. The engine was so loud that it seemed to**

**take a long time to get close to them, but when it passed, Jade saw that it was**

**actually going very fast. Then there was a rattling of gravel and the car**

**stopped. It backed up and Jade saw a boy looking through the window at her.**

**There was another boy in the passenger seat. Jade looked at them curiously.**

"Here it goes," Mare whispered.

**They seemed to be about Rowan's age, and they were both deeply tanned. The one**

**in the driver's seat had blond hair and looked as if he hadn't washed in a**

**while. The other one had brown hair. He was wear ing a vest with no shirt**

**underneath. He had a toothpick in his mouth.**

"I never got why guys do that," Maggie said. "It just seams grouse."

"Agree," most of the girls nodded.

**They both looked back at Jade, seeming just as curious as she was. Then the**

**driver's window slid down. Jade was fascinated by how quickly it went.**

"So you have phones, but no cars?" Morgead observed.

"Yeah don't ask," Ash shocked his head. He never understood that himself. Why they made themselves so eselated.

**"Need a ride?" the driver said, with an oddly bright smile. His teeth shone in**

**contrast to his dingy face.**

**Jade looked at Rowan and Kestrel, who were just catching up. Kestrel said**

**nothing, but looked at the car through narrow, heavy-lashed amber eyes. Rowan's**

**brown eyes were very warm.**

**"We sure would," she said, smiling. Then, doubtfully, "But we're going to**

**Burdock Farm. It may be out of your way..."**

**" Oh, hey, I know that place. It's not far," the one in the vest said around**

**his toothpick. "Anyway, anything for a lady," he said, with what seemed to be an**

**attempt at gallantry. **

"I'm sure he was just being nice," Ash made a remarked at that comment.

Mare sensed his discomfort, and kissed him gently.

**He opened his door and got out of the car. "One of you can**

**sit up front, and I can sit in back with the other two. Lucky me, huh?" he said**

**to the driver.**

**"Lucky you," the driver said, smiling largely again. He opened his door, too.**

**"You go on and put that cat carrier in front, and the suitcases can go in the**

**trunk," he said.**

**Rowan smiled at Jade, and Jade knew what she was thinking. I wonder if**

**everybody out here is so friendly? They distributed their belongings and then**

**piled in the car, Jade in the front with the driver, Rowan and Kestrel in the**

**back on either side of the vested guy. A minute later they were flying down the**

**road at what Jade found a delightful speed, gravel crunching beneath the tires.**

**"I'm Vic," the driver said.**

**"I'm Todd," the vested guy said.**

"I really hate those guys," Mare commented.

Everyone looked at her. She didn't hate anyone, even Jeremy.

**Rowan said, "I'm Rowan, and this is Kestrel. That's Jade up there."**

**"You girls friends?"**

**"We're sisters," Jade said.**

**"You don't look like sisters."**

**" Everybody says that." Jade meant everybody they had met since they'd run**

**away. Back home, everybody knew they were sisters, so nobody said it.**

**"What are you doing out here so late?" Vic asked. "It's not the place for nice**

**girls."**

**"We're not nice girls," Kestrel explained absently.**

"Only Kestrel say something like that," Ash smiled. That was sister.

**"We're trying to be," Rowan said reprovingly through her teeth. To Vic, she**

**said, "We were waiting for our great-aunt Opal to pick us up at the bus stop,**

**but she didn't come. We're going to live at Burdock Farm."**

**"Old lady Burdock is your aunt?" Todd said, removing his toothpick. "That crazy**

**old bat?" Vic turned around to look at him, and they both laughed and shook**

**their heads.**

"Thats not nice," Maggie said.

"Told you," Mare smirked.

"Oh no you smirking," Keller said. "You been around Ash for to long."

Ash just smiled at that. They did spend every second together, not that he mind.

**Jade looked away from Vic. She stared down at the cat carrier, listening for**

**the little squeaking noises that meant Tiggy was awake.**

"She never leaves the cat," Ash said. She was attached to that think.

**She felt just slightly ... uneasy. She sensed something. Even though these guys**

**seemed friendly, there was something beneath the surface. But she was too**

**sleepy-and too light-headed from hunger-to figure out exactly what it was.**

"They are jerks," Mare said for her.

**Rowan was still looking polite and puzzled, but Kestrel looked at the car door**

**on her side thought fully. Jade knew what she was looking for-a handle. There**

**wasn't one.**

**"Too bad," Vic said. "This car's a real junkheap; you can't even open the back**

**doors from inside."**

**He grabbed Jade's upper arm so hard she could feel pressure on the bone. "Now,**

**you girls just be nice and nobody's going to get hurt."**

Ash hissed at that. He never heard about this. "I'm going to kill those guys," he promised.

No one said anything, not even Mare.

**They seemed to drive a long time before Vic spoke again.**

**"You girls ever been to Oregon before?"**

**Jade blinked and murmured a negative.**

**"It's got some pretty lonely places," Vic said. "Out here, for example. Briar**

**Creek was a gold rush town, but when the gold ran out and the railroad passed it**

**by, it just died. Now the wilderness is taking it back."**

**His tone was significant, but Jade didn't understand what he was trying to**

**convey.**

**"It does seem peaceful;" Rowan said politely from the backseat.**

**Vic made a brief snorting sound. "Yeah, well, peaceful wasn't exactly what I**

**meant. I meant, take this road. These farmhouses are miles apart, right? If you**

**screamed, there wouldn't be anyone to hear you."**

Ash closed his eyes. It was hard for him to hear this. He felt like ripping those guys apart. How could they do this?

"Should we read?" Hannah asked.

Everyone looked at Ash.

"We might as well," he said.

**Jade blinked. What a strange thing to say. Rowan, still politely making**

**conversation, said, "Well, you and Todd would."**

**"I mean, nobody else," Vic said, and Jade could feel his impatience. He had**

**been driving more and more slowly. Now he pulled the car off to the side of the**

**road and stopped. Parked.**

Poppy felt uncomfortable, but kept going. The faster she read, the faster this would all be over.

**"Nobody out there is going to hear," he clarified, turning around to look into**

**the backseat. Jade looked, too, and saw Todd grinning, a wide bright grin with**

**teeth clenched on his toothpick.**

**" That's right," Todd said. "You're out here alone with us, so maybe you'd**

**better listen to us, huh?"**

**Jade saw that he was gripping Rowan's arm with one hand and Kestrel's wrist**

**with the other.**

"That was first chapter," Poppy said.

Ash kept his eyes close, Mare presence did helped a little.

"I read next," Mare took the book from Poppy's hands.

**…... **

**Tell me what you think. **


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2 **Mare read.

**You see, we're both lonely guys," Todd said from the back. ""There aren't any**

**girls our age around here, so we're lonely. And then when we come across three**

**nice girls like you-well, we just naturally want to get to know you better.**

**Understand?"**

"Then I kill you," Ash threatened. He was really angry, how can he never heard about his?

**"So if you girls play along, we can all have fun," Vic put in.**

"I will have fun when I rip your body into little peaces." Ash said.

Mare took deep breath before going on, she knew this was hard for Ash.

**"Fun-oh, no," Rowan said, dismayed. Jade knew she had caught part of Vic's**

**thought and was trying very hard not to pry further. "Kestrel and Jade are much**

**too young for anything like that. I'm sorry, but we have to say no."**

"Just rep there heads already, you don't always have to be nice!" Jez said.

Everyone in the room agree with her.

**" I won't do it even when I am old enough," Jade said. "But that isn't what**

**these guys mean anyway they mean this." She projected some of the images she was**

**getting from Vic into Rowan's mind.**

**"Oh, dear," Rowan said flatly. "Jade, you know we agreed not to spy on people**

**like that."**

**Yeah, but look what they're thinking, Jade said soundlessly, figuring that if**

**she had broken one rule, she might as well break them all.**

"Nice thinking," Quinn agreed.

**"Now, look," Vic said in a tone that showed he knew he was losing control of**

**the situation. He reached out and grabbed Jade's other arm, forcing her to face**

**him. "We're not here to talk. See?" He gave her a little shake. Jade studied his**

**features a moment, then turned her head to look inquiringly into the backseat.**

**Rowan's face was creamy-pale against her brown hair. Jade could feel that she**

**was sad and disappointed. Kestrel's hair was dim gold and she was frowning.**

**Well? Kestrel said silently to Rowan.**

**Well? Jade said the same way. She wriggled as Vic tried to pull her loser. Come**

**on, Rowan, he's pinching me.**

"I swear sometimes I really doubt if she is a vampire," Ash shocked his head.

"To nice," Hannah agreed. Even she knew there was no other choice. And she was the nice one.

**I guess we don't have any choice, Rowan said.**

Ash let out the breath he was holding. Everyone in the room felt better. Tree vampires against two humans was nothing.

**Immediately Jade turned back to Vic. He was still trying to pull her, looking**

**surprised that she didn't seem to be coming. Jade stopped resisting and let him**

**drag her in close-and then smoothly detached one arm from his grip and slammed**

**her hand upward. The heel of her hand made contact just under his chin. His**

**teeth clicked and his head was knocked backward, exposing his throat.**

**Jade darted in and bit.**

**She was feeling guilty and excited. She wasn't used to doing it like this, to**

**taking down prey that was awake and struggling instead of hypnotized and docile.**

**But she knew her instincts were as good as any hunter who'd grown up stalking**

**humans in alleys. It was part of her genetic programming to evaluate anything**

**she saw in terms of "Is it food? Can I get it? What are its weaknesses?"**

**The only problem was that she shouldn't be enjoying this feeding, because it**

**was exactly the opposite of what she and Rowan and Kestrel had come to Briar**

**Creek to do.**

"Who cares," Morgead said. "They deserved worse."

**She was tangentially aware of activity in the backseat. Rowan had lifted the**

**arm Todd had been using to restrain her. On the other side Kestrel had done the**

**same.**

**Todd was fighting, his voice thunderstruck. "Hey hey what are you-"**

**Rowan bit.**

**"What are you doing?"**

**Kestrel bit.**

**" What the freak are you doing? Who are you? What the freak are you?"**

"They are lucky Ash wasn't there, I really doubt they would have lived." Quinn said.

Ash nodded at his best friend. This was exactly what he was thinking.

**He thrashed wildly for a minute or so, and then subsided as Rowan and Kestrel**

**mentally urged him into a trance.**

**It was only another minute or so before Rowan said, "That's enough."**

**Jade said, Aw, Rowan ...**

**" That's enough. Tell him not to remember anything about this-and find out if**

**he knows where Burdock Farm is."**

**Still feeding, Jade reached out with her mind, touching lightly with a tentacle**

**of thought. Then she pulled back, her mouth closing as if in a kiss as it left**

**Vic's skin. Vic was just a big rag doll at this point,**

**and he flopped bonelessly against the steering wheel and the car door when she**

**let him go.**

Everyone signed with relief. The worst was over. But that still didn't make Ash feel better.

**" The farm's back that way-we have to go back to the fork in the road," she**

**said. "It's weird," she added, puzzled. "He was thinking that he wouldn't get in**

**trouble for attacking us because-because of something about Aunt Opal. I**

**couldn't get what."**

"Oh," Mare realized. They knew abut Aunt Opal death.

"What?" David wondered.

"It would say in the book," Ash answered for his soulmate.

Quinn look at them, he remembered what happened. But now he knew there was something more.

**Probably that she was crazy," Kestrel said unemotionally. "Todd was thinking**

**that he wouldn't get in trouble because his dad's an Elder."**

**" They don't have Elders," Jade said, vaguely smug. "You mean a governor or a**

**police officer or something „**

**Rowan was frowning, not looking at them. "All right," she said. "This was an**

**emergency; we had to do it. But now we're going back to what we agreed."**

**"Until the next emergency," Kestrel said, smiling out the car window into the**

**night.**

**To forestall Rowan, Jade said, "You think we should just leave them here?"**

**"Why not?" Kestrel said carelessly. "They'll wake up in a few hours."**

**Jade looked at Vic's neck. The two little wounds where her teeth had pierced**

**him were already almost closed. By tomorrow they would be faint red marks like**

**old bee stings.**

**Five minutes later they were on the road again with their suitcases. This time,**

**though, Jade was cheerful. The difference was food-she felt as full of blood as**

**a tick, charged with energy and ready to skip up mountains. She swung the cat**

**carrier and her suitcase alternately, and Tiggy growled.**

"Jade could be so careless," Ash smiled for the first time.

Everyone who knew Jade agreed.

**It was wonderful being out like this, walking alone in the warm night air, with**

**nobody to frown in disapproval. Wonderful to listen to the deer and rabbits and**

**rats feeding in the meadows around her. Happiness bubbled up inside Jade. She'd**

**never felt so free.**

"It's a great feeling," Delos agreed.

Everyone looked at him with confusion.

"What?" Delos asked.

"You were a prince. What would you know about freedom?" Keller said what most of them thought.

"Being a prince is not that grate," Delos disagreed. "I was never really free. My choices were made by others. I never really had a say in my life."

Most people saw him in whole new lite. Maybe he wasn't as bad as they thought.

**"It is nice, isn't it?" Rowan said softly, looking around as they reached the**

**fork in the road. "It's the real world. And we have as much right to it as**

**anybody else."**

**"I think it's the blood," Kestrel said. "Free-range humans are so much better**

**than the kept ones. Why didn't our dear brother ever mention that?"**

"It never came up," Ash defended himself.

**Ash, Jade thought, and felt a cold wind. She glanced behind her, not looking**

**for a car but for something much more silent and deadly. She realized suddenly**

**how fragile her bubble of happiness was.**

"Your sister is afraid of you?" Hannah asked.

"Yeah he was a bad guy, back in the day," Quinn answered for his friend.

Ash just rolled his eyes, but he knew Quinn was right.

**"Are we going to get caught?" she asked Rowan. Reverting, in the space of one**

**second, to a six-year old turning to her big sister for help.**

**And Rowan, the best big sister in the world, said immediately and positively,**

**"No. "**

**"But if Ash figures it out-he's the only one who might realize-"**

"I did," Ash said proudly.

"Do you have to brag about it?" Jez asked.

"He wouldn't be Ash. If he didn't." Mare teased.

**"We are not going to get caught," Rowan said. "Nobody will figure out that**

**we're here."**

**Jade felt better. She put down her suitcase and held out a hand to Rowan, who**

**took it. "Together forever," she said.**

**Kestrel, who'd been a few steps ahead, glanced over her shoulder. Then she came**

**back and put her hand on theirs.**

**"Together forever."**

"Thats nice," Maggie commented.

**Rowan said it solemnly; Kestrel said it with a quick narrowing of her yellow**

**eyes. Jade said it with utter determination.**

**As they walked on, Jade felt buoyant and cheerful again, enjoying the**

**velvet-dark night.**

**The road was just dirt here, not paved. They passed meadows and stands of**

**Douglas fir. A farmhouse on the left, set back on a long driveway. And finally,**

**dead ahead at the end of the road, another house.**

**"That's it," Rowan said. Jade recognized it, too, from the pictures Aunt Opal**

**had sent them. It had two stories, a wraparound porch, and a steeply pitched**

**roof with lots of gables. A cupola sprouted out of the rooftop, and there was a**

**weather vane on**

**the barn.**

"Its pretty ordinary," Mare added.

"I kind of like it," Ash surprised everyone.

**A real weather vane, Jade thought, stopping to stare. Her happiness flooded**

**_back full force. "I love it, she said solemnly.**

**Rowan and Kestrel had stopped, too, but their expressions were far from awed.**

**Rowan looked a hairs breadth away from horrified.**

**" It's a wreck," she gasped. "Look at that barn the paint's completely gone.**

**The pictures didn't show that."**

**" And the porch," Kestrel said helpfully. "It's falling to pieces. Might go any**

**minute."**

**"The work," Rowan whispered. "The work it would take to fix this place up ..."**

"They did," Mare said. She remember helping them. It did took quit a while.

**"And the money," Kestrel said.**

**Jade gave them a cold look. "Why fix it? I like it."**

**It's different." Rigid with superiority, she picked up her luggage and walked**

**to the end of the road- There was a ramshackle, mostly fallen-down fence around**

**the property, and a dangerous-looking gate. Beyond, on a weed-covered path, was**

**a pile of white pickets as if somebody had been planning to fix the fence but**

**had never got around to it.**

**Jade put down the suitcase and cat carrier and pulled at the gate. To her**

**surprise, it moved easily.**

**" See, it may not look good, but it still works-" She didn't get to finish the**

**sentence properly. The gate fell on her.**

**" Well, it may not work, but it's still ours," she said**

**as Rowan and Kestrel pulled it off her.**

**"No, it's Aunt Opal's," Kestrel said.**

**Rowan just smoothed her hair back and said,**

**"Come on."**

**There was a board missing from the porch steps, and several boards gone from**

**the porch itself. Jade limped around them with dignity. The gate had given her a**

**good whack in the shin, and since it was wood, it still . hurt. In fact,**

**everything seemed to be made of wood here, which gave Jade a pleasantly alarmed**

**feeling. Back home, wood was revered-,and kept out of the way.**

"Why?" asked David.

"So no one would get hurt," Ash explained. "Vampires could get in the fight with other vampires."

**You have to be awfully careful to live in this kind of world, Jade thought. Or**

**you're going to get hurt.**

"Now she realizes the dangere," Ash muttered.

**Rowan and Kestrel were knocking on the door, Rowan politely, with her knuckles,**

**Kestrel loudly, with the side of her hand. There wasn't any answer.**

**"She doesn't seem to be here," Rowan said.**

**"She's decided she doesn't want us," Kestrel said, golden eyes gleaming.**

**" Maybe she went to the wrong bus station," Jade said.**

**" Oh-that's it. I bet that's it," Rowan said. "Poor old thing, she's waiting**

**for us somewhere, and she's going to be thinking that we didn't show up."**

**"Sometimes you're not completely stupid," Kestrel informed Jade. High praise**

**from Kestrel.**

"Is she really that bad?" Hannah asked.

"She like Ash," Quinn joked.

"No she is not that bad," Jez mocked.

Ash just pouted.

**" Well, let's go in," Jade said ^ , to conceal how pleased she was. "She'll**

**come back here sometime."**

**" Human houses have locks," Rowan began, but this house wasn't locked. The**

**doorknob turned in Jade's hand. The three of them stepped inside.**

**It was dark, even darker than the moonless night outside, but Jade's eyes**

**adjusted in a few seconds.**

**"Hey, it's not bad," she said. They were in a shabby but handsome living room**

**filled with huge, ponderous furniture. Wood furniture, of course dark and highly**

**polished. The tables were topped with marble.**

**Rowan found a light switch, and suddenly the room was too bright. Blinking, Jade**

**saw that the walls were pale apple green, with fancy woodwork and moldings in a**

**darker shade of the same green. It made Jade feel oddly peaceful. And anchored,**

**somehow, as if she belonged here. Maybe it was all the heavy furniture.**

**She looked at Rowan, who was looking around tall graceful body slowly relaxing.**

**Rowan smiled and met her eyes. She nodded once. "Yes."**

**Jade basked for a moment in the glory of having been right twice in five**

**minutes-and then she remembered her suitcase.**

**"Let's see what the rest of the place is like," she said hastily. "I'll take**

**the upstairs; you guys look around here."**

**" You just want the best bedroom," Kestrel said.**

"Someone got cut," Morgead teased.

**Jade ignored her, hurrying up a wide, carpeted flight of stairs. There were**

**lots of bedrooms, and each one had lots of room. She didn't want the best,**

**though, just the farthest away.**

"Someone was wrong," Jez mocked her soulmate.

**At the very end of the hall was a room painted sea-blue. Jade slammed the door**

**behind her and put her suitcase on the bed. Holding her breath, she opened the**

**suitcase.**

**Oh. Oh, no. Oh, no ...**

**Three minutes later she heard the click of the door behind her, but didn't care**

**enough to turn.**

**"What are you doing?" Kestrel's voice said.**

**Jade looked up from her frantic efforts to resuscitate the two kittens she**

**held. "They're dead!" she wailed.**

**"Well, what did you expect? They need to breathe, idiot. How did you expect**

**them to make it through two days of traveling?"**

"Oh they died," Thea was sad. She loved animals.

**Jade sniffled.**

**"Rowan told you that you could take only one."**

**Jade sniffled harder and glared. "I know. That's why I put these two in the**

**suitcase." She hiccuped. "At least Tiggy's all right." She dropped to her knees**

**and peered in the cat carrier to make sure he was all right. His ears were laid**

**back, his golden eyes gleam ing out of a mass of black fur. He hissed, and Jade**

**sat up. He was fine.**

**"For five dollars I'll take care of the dead ones," Kestrel said.**

**"No!" Jade jumped up and moved protectively in front of them, fingers clawed.**

**" Not like that," Kestrel said, offended. "I don't eat carrion. Look, if you**

**don't get rid of them somehow, Rowan's going to find out. For God's sake, girl,**

**you're a vampire," she added as Jade cradled the limp bodies to her chest. "Act**

**like one."**

"Prefer she don't," Ash said.

**" I want to bury them," Jade said. "They should have a funeral."**

**Kestrel rolled her eyes and left. Jade wrapped the small corpses in her jacket**

**and tiptoed out after her.**

**A shovel, she thought. Now, where would that be?**

**Keeping her ears open for Rowan, she sidled around the first floor. All the**

**rooms looked like the living room: imposing and in a state of genteel decay. The**

**kitchen was huge. It had an open fireplace and a shed off the back door for**

**washing laundry. It also had a door to the cellar.**

**Jade made her way down the steps cautiously. She couldn't turn on a light**

**because she needed both hands for the kittens. And, because of the kittens, she**

**couldn't see her feet. She had to feel with her toe for the next step.**

**At the bottom of the stairs her toe found some thing yielding, slightly**

**resilient. It was blocking her path.**

**Slowly Jade craned her neck over the bundle of jacket and looked down.**

**It was dim here. She herself was blocking the light that filtered down from the**

**kitchen. But she could make out what looked like a pile of old clothes. A lumpy**

**pile.**

**Jade was getting a very, very bad feeling.**

"Here it goes," Mare muttered darkly. She knew what was coming.

**She nudged the pile of clothes with one toe. It moved slightly. Jade took a**

**deep breath and nudged it hard.**

**It was all one piece. It rolled over. Jade looked down, breathed quickly for a**

**moment, and screamed.**

**A good, shrill, attention-getting scream. She added a nonverbal thought, the**

**telepathic equivalent of a siren.**

**Rowan! Kestrel! You guys get down here!**

**Twenty seconds later the cellar light went on and Rowan and Kestrel came**

**clattering down the stairs.**

**" I have told you and told you," Rowan was saying through her teeth. "We don't**

**use our-" She stopped, staring.**

**"I think it's Aunt Opal," Jade said.**

"What happened?" Eric asked.

"She been staked," Ash informed him.

"So it wasn't you," Quinn put the two together.

"Do you really believe I would stake my own aunt?" Ash was a little bit shocked.

"You have a point," Quinn agreed.

"Then who did?" Maggie wondered.

"You see," Mare sad quietly.

"I read next," Hannah offered. She took the book, and snuggle closer to Thierry. Before beginning to read.

**…...**

**Chapter 2 is done. Thanks to everyone who review. Its really means a lot to me, that you like the story. :) **


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3**

**She's not looking so good," Kestrel said, peering over Rowan's shoulder.**

**Rowan said, "Oh, dear," and sat down**

**Great-aunt Opal was a mummy. Her skin was like leather: yellow-brown, hard, and**

**smooth. Almost shiny. And the skin was all there was to her, just a leathery**

**frame stretched over bones. She didn't have any hair. Her eye sockets were dark**

**holes with dry tissue inside. Her nose was collapsed.**

**"Poor auntie," Rowan said. Her own brown eyes were wet.**

**"We're going to look like that when we die," Kestrel said musingly.**

"Would we?" asked Morgead.

"Do you have a heart?" asked Thea. "There aunt is dead, and you ask that stupid question."

"I just wanted to know," he defended himself.

**Jade stamped her foot. "No, look, you guys! You're both missing it completely.**

**Look at that!" She swung a wild toe at the mummy's midsection. There, protruding**

**from the blue-flowered housedress and the leathery skin, was a gigantic splinter**

**of wood. It was almost as long as an arrow, thick at the base and tapered where**

**it disappeared into Aunt Opal's chest. Flakes of white paint still clung to one**

**side.**

**Several other pickets were lying on the cellar floor.**

"She was killed in a hurry," Rashel observed.

"Yes," Ash nod.

**" Poor old thing," Rowan said. "She must have been carrying them when she**

**fell."**

**Jade looked at Kestrel. Kestrel looked back with exasperated golden eyes. There**

**were few things they agreed on, but Rowan was one of them.**

"Is always that nice?" asked Keller.

"Yes," Mare and Ash said at the same time.

**" Rowan," Kestrel said distinctly, "she was staked. "**

**"Oh, no."**

**" Oh, yes," Jade said. "Somebody killed her. And somebody who knew she was a**

**vampire."**

**Rowan was shaking her head. "But who would know that?"**

**"Well ..." Jade thought. "Another vampire."**

"I wish," Ash said quietly. Another vampire would be a lot easier to deal with.

**"Or a vampire hunter," Kestrel said.**

**Rowan looked up, shocked. "Those aren't real. They're just stories to frighten**

**kids-aren't they?"**

**Kestrel shrugged, but her golden eyes were dark.**

"They don't believe about vampire hunters?" Rashel was shocked.

"They just trying to protect them. They don't know a lot of thinks." Ash explained.

**Jade shifted uneasily. The freedom she'd felt on the road, the peace in the**

**living room-and now this. Suddenly she felt empty and isolated.**

"Poor think," Hannah said. She wouldn't want anyone in this situation.

**Rowan sat down on the stairs, looking too tired and preoccupied to push back**

**the lock of hair plastered to her forehead. "Maybe I shouldn't have brought you**

**here," she said softly. "Maybe it's worse here." She didn't say it, but Jade**

**could sense her next thought. Maybe we should go back**

**"Nothing could be worse," Jade said fiercely. "And I'd die before I'd go back."**

**She meant it. Back to waiting on every man in sight? Back to arranged marriages**

**and endless restrictions? Back to all those disapproving faces, so quick to**

**condemn anything different, anything that wasn't done the way it had been done**

**four hundred years ago?**

"Thats sounds terrible," Gillian spoked for the first time. David patted her hand for support.

"It is," Delos agree to everyone surprise. "What I see what it looks like."

**"We can't go back," she said.**

**"No, we can't," Kestrel said dryly. "Literally. Un less we want to end up like**

**Great-aunt Opal. Or" she paused significantly-"like Great-uncle Hodge."**

**Rowan looked up. "Don't even say that!"**

**Jade's stomach felt like a clenched fist. "They wouldn't, she said, shoving**

**back at the memory that was trying to emerge. "Not to their own grandkids. Not**

**to us."**

**" The point," Kestrel said, "is that we can't go back, so we have to go**

**forward. We've got to figure out what we're going to do here without Aunt Opal**

**to help us-especially if there's a vampire hunter around. But first, what are**

**we going to do with that?" She nodded toward the body.**

**Rowan just shook her head helplessly. She looked around the cellar as if she**

**might find an answer in a comer. Her gaze fell on Jade. It stopped there, and**

**Jade could see the sisterly radar system turn on.**

**"Jade. What's that in your jacket?"**

**Jade was too wrung-out to lie. She opened the jacket and showed Rowan the**

**kittens. "I didn't know my suitcase would kill them."**

"Really? What did she think would happen," Jez asked with disbelieve.

"They would be alive?" Morgead said innocently. Which earned him a slap.

**Rowan looked too wrung-out to be angry. She glanced heavenward, sighing. Then,**

**looking back at Jade sharply: "But why were you bringing them down here?"**

**" I wasn't. I was just looking for a shovel. I was going to bury them in the**

**backyard."**

**There was a pause. Jade looked at her sisters and they looked at each other.**

**Then all three of them looked at the kittens.**

**Then they looked at Great-aunt Opal.**

"Wow the dead kittens saved the day!" Quinn said sarcasticly.

**Mary-Lynnette was crying.**

**It was a beautiful night, a perfect night. An inversion layer was keeping the**

**air overhead still and warm, and the seeing was excellent. There was very little**

**light pollution and no direct light. The Victorian farmhouse just below**

**Mary-Lynnette's hill was mostly dark. Mrs. Burdock was always very consider ate**

**about that.**

"You didn't knew yet," observed Maggie.

"No it will take me some time." Mare agree.

**Above, the Milky Way cut diagonally across the sky like a river. To the south,**

**where Mary-Lynnette had just directed her telescope, was the constellation**

**Sagittarius, which always looked. more like a teapot than like an archer to her.**

**And just above the spout of the teapot was a faintly pink patch of what looked**

**like steam.**

**It wasn't steam. It was clouds of stars. A star factory called the Lagoon**

**Nebula. The dust and gas of dead stars was being recycled into hot young stars,**

**just being born.**

"The stars can die?" Quinn asked.

"Yes," Mare said slowly.

"Wow," he said. That something he never knew.

**It was four thousand and five hundred light-years away. And she was looking at**

**it, right this minute. A seventeen-year-old kid with a second-hand Newtonian**

**reflector telescope was watching the light of stars being born.**

**Sometimes she was filled with so much awe and and-and-and longing-that she**

**thought she might break to pieces.**

**Since there was nobody else around, she could let the tears roll down her**

**cheeks without pretending it was an allergy. After a while she had to sit back**

**and wipe her nose and eyes on the shoulder of her T-shirt.**

**Oh, come on, give it a rest now, she told herself. You're crazy, you know.**

"I second that," Morgead said. "Your in the middle of no wear, crying because a star was born. Crazyyyy!"

"She is not crazy," Ash disagreed. "That would be you."

**She wished she hadn't thought of Jeremy earlier. Because now, for some reason,**

**she kept picturing him the way he'd looked that night when he came to watch the**

**eclipse with her. His level brown eyes had held a spark of excitement, as if he**

**really cared about what he was seeing. As if, for that moment, anyway, he**

**understood.**

"I hate that guy," Ash said.

"He is dead. Get over it," Mare told him.

**I have been one acquainted with the night, a maudlin little voice inside her**

**chanted romantically, trying to get her to cry again.**

**Yeah, right, Mary-Lynnette told the voice cynically. She reached for the bag of**

**Cheetos she kept under her lawn chair. It was impossible to feel romantic and**

**overwhelmed by grandeur while eating Cheetos.**

"Love Cheetos," most of humans said.

**Saturn next, she thought, and wiped sticky orange crumbs off her fingers. It**

**was a good night for Saturn because its rings were just passing through their**

**edgewise position.**

**She had to hurry because the moon was rising at 11:16. But before she turned**

**her telescope toward Saturn, she took one last look at the Lagoon. Actually just**

**to the east of the Lagoon, trying to make out the open cluster of fainter stars**

**she knew was there.**

**She couldn't see it. Her eyes just weren't good enough. If she had a bigger**

**telescope-if she lived in Chile where the air was dry-if she could get above the**

**earth's atmosphere . . . then she might have a chance. But for now . . . she was**

**limited by the human eye. Human pupils just didn't open farther than 9**

**millimeters.**

"Really are we that blind?" David asked.

"Its not that bad," Thea disagreed. "Some people cant see at all."

**Nothing to be done about that.**

"You wrong there," all vampires said.

**She was just centering Saturn in the field of view when a light went on behind**

**the farmhouse below. Not a little porch light. A barnyard vapor lamp. It**

**illuminated the back property of the house like a searchlight.**

**Mary-Lynnette sat back, annoyed. It didn't really matter-she could see Saturn**

**anyway, see the rings that tonight were just a delicate silver line cutting**

**across the center of the planet. But it was strange. Mrs. Burdock never turned**

**the back light on at night.**

"And here it goes," Jez observed.

"Only you will notice thinks like that," Rashel agreed.

**The girls, Mary-Lynnette thought. The nieces. They must have gotten there and**

**she must be giving them a tour. Absently she reached for her binoculars. She was**

**curious.**

"Spying is not nice," Ash mocked.

"Like you never done it," Mare glared at him.

"Me?" Ash asked innocently.

**They were good binoculars, Celestron Ultimas, sleek and lightweight. She used**

**them for looking at everything from deep sky objects to the craters on the moon.**

**Right now, they magnified the back of Mrs. Burdock's house ten times.**

**She didn't see Mrs. Burdock, though. She could see the garden. She could see**

**the shed and the fenced-in area where Mrs. Burdock kept her goats. And she could**

**see three girls, all well illuminated by the vapor lamp. One had brown hair, one**

**had golden hair, and one had hair the color of Jupiter's rings. That silvery.**

**Like starlight. They were carrying something wrapped in plastic between them.**

**Black plastic. Hefty garbage bags, if Mary-Lynnette wasn't mistaken.**

**Now, what on earth were they doing with that?**

**Burying it.**

"Wow it didn't even take you a day," Quinn said despondently.

"Its not my fault I just happened to be there," Mare said with a laugh.

**The short one with the silvery hair had a shovel. She was a good little digger,**

**too. In a few minutes she had rooted up most of Mrs. Burdock's irises. Then the**

**medium-sized one with the golden hair took a turn, and last of all the tall one**

**with the brown hair.**

**Then they picked up the garbage-bagged object even though it was probably over**

**five feet long, it seemed very light-and put it in the hole they'd just made.**

**They began to shovel dirt back into the hole.**

**No, Mary-Lynnette told herself. No, don't be ridiculous. Don't be insane.**

**There's some mundane, per perfectly commonplace explanation for this.**

**The problem was, she couldn't think of any.**

"Really because I can," Morgead teased. "I bet you thought the girls killed her."

Mare faced turned red. He was so right.

**No, no, no. This is not Rear Window, we are not in the Twilight Zone. They're**

**just burying-something. Some sort of ... ordinary ...**

**What else besides a dead body was five-feet-andsome-odd-inches long, rigid, and**

**needed to be wrapped in garbage bags before burial?**

**And, Mary-Lynnette thought, feeling a rush of adrenaline that made her heart**

**beat hard. And.**

**And...**

**Where was Mrs. Burdock?**

"Here is your first clue," Rashel said.

**The adrenaline was tingling painfully in her palms**

**and feet. It made her feel out of control, which she hated. Her hands were**

**shaking so badly she had to lower the binoculars.**

**Mrs. B.'s okay. She's all right. Things like this don't happen in real life.**

"Yeah they do," James said. "People just don't know about it."

"Thats just terrible," Hannah said softly.

**What would Nancy Drew do?**

"Nancy Drew?" Ash raised his eyebrow.

"Whats wrong with Nancy Drew?" Mare asked him.

"I didn't say there is something wrong with her. It just shocking you read the books. I thought you like classic." he defended himself.

"I was little. Sue me," Mare smiled.

**Suddenly, in the middle of her panic, Mary-Lynnette felt a tiny giggle try to**

**escape like a burp. Nancy Drew, of course, would hike right down there and**

**investigate. She'd eavesdrop on the girls from behind a bush and then dig up the**

**garden once they went back inside the house.**

**But things like that didn't happen. Mary-Lynnette couldn't even imagine trying**

**to dig up a neighbor's garden in the dead of night. She would get caught and it**

**would be a humiliating farce. Mrs. Burdock would walk out of the house alive and**

**alarmed, and Mary-Lynnette would die of embarrassment trying to explain.**

"I would have payed to see that!" Quinn laughed.

**In a book that might be amusing. In real life-she didn't even want to think**

**about it.**

**One good thing, it made her realize how absurd her paranoia was. Deep down, she**

**obviously knew Mrs. B. was just fine. Otherwise, she wouldn't be sitting here;**

**she'd be calling the police, like any sensible person.**

"Yeah I hate to burst your bible, but she is dead." Morgead told her.

"Really?" Mare mocked.

"Yes," Morgead said seriously.

**Somehow, though, she suddenly felt tired. Not up to more starwatching. She**

**checked her watch by the ruby glow of a red-filtered flashlight. Almost**

**eleven-well, it was all over in sixteen minutes anyway. When the moon rose it**

**would bleach out the sky.**

**But before she broke down her telescope for the trip back, she picked up the**

**binoculars again. Just one last look.**

**The garden was empty. A rectangle of fresh dark soil showed where it had been**

**violated. Even as Mary-Lynnette watched, the vapor lamp went out.**

**It wouldn't do any harm to go over there tomorrow, Mary-Lynnette thought.**

**Actually, I was going to, anyway. I should welcome those girls to the**

**neighborhood. I should return those pruning shears Dad borrowed and the knife**

**Mrs. B. gave me to get my gas cap off. And of course I'll see Mrs. B. there, and**

**then I'll know everything's okay.**

"Good plan," Maggie agreed.

**Ash reached the top of the winding road and stopped to admire the blazing point**

**of light in the south. You really could see more from these isolated**

**country towns. From here Jupiter, the king of the planets, looked like a UFO.**

**" Where have you been?" a voice nearby said. "I've been waiting for you for**

**hours."**

**Ash answered without turning around. "Where have I been? Where have you been?**

**We were supposed to meet on that hill, Quinn." Hands in his pockets, he pointed**

**with an elbow.**

"Yeah and you weren't even there," Quinn said.

"Yes I was," Ash disagreed.

**"Wrong. It was this hill and I've been sitting right here waiting for you the**

**entire time. But forget it. Are they here or aren't they?"**

**Ash turned and walked unhurriedly to the open convertible that was parked just**

**beside the road, its lights off. He leaned one elbow on the door, looking down.**

**"They're here. I told you they would be. It was the only place for them to go."**

**"All three of them?"**

**"Of course, all three of them. My sisters always stick together."**

**Quinn's lip curled. "Lamia are so wonderfully family oriented."**

"You were so nice," Rashel observed.

Quinn just looked down.

**"And made vampires are so wonderfully . . . short," Ash said serenely, looking**

**at the sky again.**

"And Ash is just as nice. No wonder you guy are good friends." Mare said.

Ash was about disagreed, but silenced as soon as he looked at Mare.

**Quinn gave him a look like black ice. His e-mail, compact body was utterly**

**still inside the car. "Well, now, I never got to finish growing, did I?" he said**

**very softly. "One of your ancestors took care of that."**

**Ash boosted himself to sit on the hood of the car, long legs dangling. "I think**

**I may stop aging this year myself," he said blandly, still looking down the**

**slope. "Eighteen's not such a bad age."**

"Yep," Ash agreed with his book self.

**"Maybe not if you have a choice," Quinn said, his voice still as soft as dead**

**leaves falling. "Try being eighteen for four centuries-with no end in sight."**

"Its not really that bad," Quinn said. "But it does has its downsides."

**Ash turned to smile at him again. "Sorry. On my family's behalf."**

**"And I'm sorry for your family. The Redferns have been having a little trouble**

**lately, haven't they? Let's see if I've got it right. First your uncle Hodge**

**breaks Night World law and is appropriately punished-"**

**"My great-uncle by marriage," Ash interrupted in polite tones, holding one**

**finger up. "He was a Burdock, not a Redfern. And that was over ten years ago."**

**" And then your aunt Opal-"**

**"My great-aunt Opal-"**

**"Disappears completely. Breaks off all contact with the Night World. Apparently**

**because she prefers living in the middle of nowhere with humans."**

"Well she payed for that," Ash said sadly.

**Ash shrugged, eyes fixed on the southern horizon. "It must be good hunting in**

**the middle of nowhere with humans. No competition. And no Night World**

**enforcement-no Elders putting a limit on how many you can bag."**

**" And no supervision," Quinn said sourly. "It doesn't matter so much that she's**

**been living here, but she's obviously been encouraging your sisters to join her.**

**You should have informed on them when you found out they were writing to each**

**other secretly."**

**Ash shrugged, uncomfortable. "It wasn't against the law. I didn't know what**

**they had in mind."**

"Wow Ash was being nice?" James mocked.

"I can be nice," Ash disagreed. "I just choice not to."

**" It's not just them," Quinn said in his disturbingly soft voice. "You know**

**there are rumors about that cousin of yours-James Rasmussen. People are say ing**

**that he fell in love with a human girl. That she was dying and he decided to**

**change her without permission. . . ."**

"Well know we know that was not a rumor," Quinn looked at James and Poppy.

**Ash slid off the hood and straightened. "I never listen to rumors," he said,**

**briskly and untruthfully. "Besides, that's not the problem right now, is it?"**

**" No. The problem is your sisters and the mess they're in. And whether you can**

**really do what's necessary to dean it up."**

**"Don't worry, Quinn. I can handle it."**

**" But I do worry, Ash. I don't know how I let you talk me into this."**

**"You didn't. You lost that game of poker."**

"Your not that good at the game," Ash said.

"No you just like to cheat," Quinn disagreed.

**"And you cheated." Quinn was looking off into a middle distance, his dark eyes**

**narrowed, his mouth a straight line. "I still think we should tell the Elders ,"**

**he said abruptly. "It's the only way to guarantee a really thorough**

**investigation."**

**" I don't see why it needs to be so thorough. They've only been here a few**

**hours."**

**"Your sisters have only been here a few hours. Your aunt has been here-how**

**long? Ten years?"**

**" What have you got against my aunt, Quinn?"**

**"Her husband was a traitor. She's a traitor now for encouraging those girls to**

**run away. And who knows what she's been doing here in the last ten years? Who**

**knows how many humans she's told about the Night World?"**

**Ash shrugged, examining his nails. "Maybe she hasn't told any."**

**"And maybe she's told the whole town."**

**"Quinn," Ash said patiently, speaking as if to a very young child, "if my aunt**

**has broken the laws of the Night World, she has to die. For the family honor.**

**Any blotch on that reflects on me."**

**" That's one thing I can count on," Quinn said half under his breath. ','Your**

**self-interest. You always look after Number One, don't you?"**

"And what was os bad about that?" Ash asked.

"A lot," everyone answered.

**"Doesn't everybody?"**

**"Not everybody is quite so blatant about it." There was a pause, then Quinn**

**said, "And what about your sisters?"**

**" What about them?"**

**" Can you kill them if it's necessary?"**

**Ash didn't blink. "Of course. If it's necessary. For the family honor."**

"You would really had done that?" Mare asked.

"No," Ash comforted her. "I was just trying to get him off my back."

"Don't I feel loved," Quinn teased.

**"If they've let something slip about the Night World-"**

**"They're not stupid."**

**"They're innocent. They might get tricked. That's what happens when you live on**

**an island completely isolated from normal humans. You never learn how cunning**

**vermin can be."**

**"Well, we know how cunning they can be," Ash said, smiling. "And what to do**

**about them."**

**For the first time Quinn himself smiled, a charming, almost dreamy smile. "Yes,**

**I know your views on that. All right. I'll leave you here to take care of it. I**

**don't need to tell you to check out every human those girls have had contact**

**with. Do a good job and maybe you can save your family honor."**

**" Not to mention the embarrassment of a public trial."**

**"I'll come back in a week. And if you haven't got things under control, I go to**

**the Elders. I don't mean your Redfern family Elders, either. I'm taking it all**

**the way up to the joint Council."**

**"Oh, fine," Ash said. "You know, you really ought to get a hobby, Quinn. Go**

**hunting yourself. You're too repressed."**

**Quinn ignored that and said shortly, "Do you know where to start?"**

**"Sure. The girls are right ... down ... there." Ash turned east. With one eye**

**shut, he zeroed in with his finger on a patch of light in the valley below. "At**

**Burdock Farm. I'll check things out in town, then I'll go look up the nearest**

**vermin."**

"That is just wonderful," Mare said.

"I cant wait to see how you two meet," Jez laughed. "I bet it was funny!"

"I read next," Thea got the book.

**…...**

**Marry late Christmas! I hope you got everything you wanted! Chapter 3 is done, tell me what you think :) **


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